(BURBANK, Calif. – July 19, 2016) — To assist healthcare organizations grapple with the complexities of a changing marketplace and the movement toward industry consolidation, Strategic Health Group (SHG) announced today the development of a new strategic-alignment assessment toolkit that allows hospitals, health systems and health plans to easily evaluate the potential success of a merger or affiliation strategy. The tool is being introduced as SHG celebrates its fifth anniversary as one of the industry’s leading providers of sound, strategic advice to healthcare executive management teams and boards of directors nationwide.

“We are squarely in the middle of one of the most turbulent times ever experienced in American healthcare where basic questions such as how care is provided, paid for and measured are all coming into question,” says Hank Osowski, SHG’s co-founder and co-managing director. “Over the past five years, we have helped some of the nation’s best-known and most widely respected healthcare organizations successfully confront these challenges and position them for success in these changing times.”

Among the areas in which SHG is frequently called upon to assist is helping provider organizations develop a risk-bearing strategy, often in conjunction with the creation of provider-sponsored health plans. Both Osowski and co-founder and co-managing director Dennis Eder bring more than three decades of leadership experience in this area with particular expertise not only in commercial lines of business but with Medicare Advantage health plans, Medicaid (including dual eligible) and long-term care.

“Over these past five years, client after client has told us that the reason they turn to SHG to be their trusted advisors is because we aren’t a traditional team of professional consultants relying on theory or limited hands-on credibility,” says Eder. “In the very truest sense we are senior healthcare executives ourselves anxious to share our experience and knowledge in ways that assist other healthcare executives succeed in this difficult environment.”

According to Eder SHG developed its strategic-alignment assessment toolkit as an outgrowth of the desire many healthcare boards and leadership teams have to consider strategic partnerships as an attractive road to long-term sustainability. While a recent report from PricewaterhouseCoopers calls 2016 the “Year of Merger Mania,” Eder cautions that this may not apply to every organization in every market and “before jumping into these waters, you need to be sure there is a compelling, strategic rationale for doing so.”

The new SHG toolkit assesses an organization’s likelihood of success by exploring the reasons for affiliation and affiliation options, defining the measures of success, looking at the impact of competitive or regulatory pressures, understanding what makes a good partner, and discussing the importance of culture and other considerations.

Strategic Health Group provides healthcare organizations with consulting services across a wide spectrum of needs including strategic planning, new health plan development, market and product expansion, strategic partnering and affiliation, interim executive management and many others. For more information, visit us at www.strategichealthgroup.com.